Laser
Laser
Laser
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Sep, 2013Views
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NickVerburgtPhotography
September 07, 2013
I've taken a similar shot, but you got the sun perfectly.
monochromatik
September 07, 2013
Haha, yeah right time right place I guess. FYI this was taken around 2pm early-mid August in Brisbane.
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in my hometown of Brisbane under the Captain Cook Bridge. My favourite style of photography is unplanned exploration where perfect shots like this one come about only rarely.Time
Judging by the sun is was mid-morning nearning midday. The sun was perfectly placed between the two halves of the bridge at the time cutting a laser-beam of light through to the river, hence the name.Lighting
The huge contrast between highlights and shadows in this photo is the key to its intrigue. The pattern emerges precisely because details are washed out or blacked out. The city scape and pedestrian bridge in the background serve as context to help make the photo seem more real. Otherwise, it would just look like a cool light pattern. I also love the neat sun flare that I saw here.Equipment
This would have been shot on a Canon EOS 450d with a Tamron 18-270mm zoom lens, though the zoom wasn't used for this photo. It was a fairly simple setup and it worked for this style of photo on the day.Inspiration
As I typically do on a shoot, I explore the city/place I happen to be in by going for a wander. I put my photographer's hat on and start framing up the world for objects, subjects and scenes that could be interesting. The harsh beam of light piercing through the bridge caught my eye, so naturally, I poised myself dead center to achieve a straight beam of light going up-down through the image.Editing
I used to be into a lot of black and whites, hence my avatar as "monochromatik." Since then, I have broadened my scope and started really loving colour. Typically, I will bump up the saturation to allow colours to pop and play with brightness to suit the ambient light. I will then adjust contrast, however this really depends on the nature of the highlights and shadows in the scene I'm looking at. In this photo, there was already very high contrast due to the harsh light, so I didn't need to move contrast too much. An especially important edit for this type of photo was a small crop and rotate, to make sure the beam of light was exactly parallel to the left and right margins of the image.In my camera bag
My standard kit these days is your jack-of-all-trades Tamron 18-270mm zoom lens on my upgraded Canon EOS 7D. The 7D had proven to be very versatile and durable in any conditions. So if you can handle walking around all day with a somewhat hefty weight in your hand, I would reccomend something like the 7D. I'm a fairly no-frills kind of guy with gear; I like to do most of my tinkering in post as I find it is cheaper and I'm still learning as I go.Feedback
Certainly. I would reccomend to do as I say and not as I do: think carefully about the time of day, position of the sun and position of the object that is interacting with the sun's light. That way, you have the best chance to capture a scene such as this one. Also, don't be afraid to do some clever rotation and cropping in post to make the image look perfect.
